Of course every society and individual has these, but really painful as the great writing hit home as I am South Asian. It was his latent anti-Blackness and colorism that allowed him to continue justifying his choice to keep their relationship a secret, that allowed him to subconsciously belittle Yasmina and drive her to question whether she was good enough for him and how her Blackness played a part in such behavior. A young British Pakistani man, Nur has spent years omitting details about his personal life to maintain his image as the golden eldest child.

Upon reaching this point in the novel, I was nearly driven to skepticism and disbelief, wondering whether Ali would truly allow this relationship to prosper despite the clearly unhealthy and "subtly" disrespectful dynamic that was developing between the couple on Nur's behalf. I hope Mina leaves Nur in the end because the inadequacy and indecision on his part is not worth it and she does deserve better.He must finally be honest and reveal to his family the secret he's been hiding: Yasmina is Black, and he loves her. In the end, we find out that his family never really had a problem with Nur dating Yasmina, as long as she's Muslim. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. Publication dates are subject to change (although this is an extremely uncommon occurrence overall). Told through an alternating timeline over four years, we see Nur and Yasmina meet, fall in love and move in together.

But Nur's announcement has been long-delayed, and it feels guilty and furtive and fraught, an occasion for anxiety rather than joy.Nur is repeatedly told that he is treating Yasmina badly, even though he continually shifts the blame on his family instead, and he’s not …babied (for want of another word) when it all goes wrong because of it.